George Jean Nathan (1882–1958)

Part of Nathan's series, produced in the 1940s, in which he (ostensibly) reviews the Broadway offerings of the prior season. There are times when Nathan gets to be a frightful windbag, going on and on about Broadway history. A chunk of the humour (though not all of it) is forced, and there are times when you feel he's in pulling-wings-off-butterflies mode (especially when one musical offering takes a pot-shot at him -- well deserved, says I). About the only value here is when he encounters some historical offering, like Brigadoon (which he liked, in spite of it having things he doesn't like -- but then he promptly all-but-accuses the authors of plagiarism) or Annie Get Your Gun (not very enthusiastic about this, in my reading). Strictly for theatre buffs and historians.… (altro)

One of the earlier entries in Nathan's annual machine-gunning of the wounded. A few exceptions here, like "Voice of the Turtle," and "Carmen Jones," and a few other plays that he seems to like. But in the main, a certain schadenfreude in watching plays go down. "Allah Be Praised" has the line from Cy Howard about abandoning the play and keeping the store open at nights, and Nathan takes ghoulish glee in putting down a CPA that apparently had the temerity to actually try and write and produce a play (just try that today). Back to your desk, peasant.… (altro)